Hero Tales and Legends of the Serbians Part 37

a as in "father"

e as in "met"

u as e in "be"

o as in "note"

y as oo in "boot."

ou is p.r.o.nounced also as oo in "boot." Closed or semi-closed vowels are unknown to the Serbian tongue.

The twenty-five consonants are p.r.o.nounced as in English, with the following exceptions:

h at the beginning of words or syllables is always aspirated.

r is always rolled. In a Serbian monosyllable it sometimes plays the part of a vowel between two consonants, e.g. vrt (garden).

The combinations ts or tz, as in "tsar," "tzarina," etc., are p.r.o.nounced like ts in "its."

y has been used in the English forms of Serbian names not as a vowel but invariably as a consonant, as in "year." This consonantal y has been used often after the consonants d, l, n, and t, and y is then merged into the preceding consonant to form one sound. For example, dy becomes very like the sound of j in "jaw," as in the word "Dyourady,"

which is p.r.o.nounced Joo-radg.

z in the names "Zdral" and "Zabylak" is p.r.o.nounced like s in "pleasure"; elsewhere it is p.r.o.nounced as in English.

The Serbian language being phonetic does not employ double consonants, diphthongs or triphthongs. The thirty letters represent always the same thirty sounds, and the position of the written symbol does not affect or qualify its sound.